Thurles RFC win the MUNSTER JUNIOR CLUBS CHALLENGE SHIELD

Thurles RFC 25

St Marys RFC 6.

Thurles RFC won the Munster Junior Clubs Challenge Shield on Sunday last for the second time in fine style with a comprehensive win over Limerick City rivals St Marys. In a display of monumental defending at times and sublime attacking play Thurles were very much on top throughout but made life difficult at times especially when down to 13 players for 8 minutes of the second half, but the cream rose to the top and when heroes were looked for they were there in abundance.

Thurles started well and had St Marys under pressure from the kick off and pinned them back in their own 22 for the first 15 minutes following on from good attacking lines by the full back Paddy McGrath he unselfishly unloaded to prop forward Ger McCormack who ran a line that would have looked well in Twickenham yesterday got over the line and had the vision to narrow the angle for the conversion by bringing the ball in a lot closer before touching down. Unfortunately the kick was missed.

Thurles returned the kick-off again and were rewarded with a scrum, the front row of Ger McCormack, Shane Nugent & John Shaw Jnr were well on top and drove the Mary’s pack back Seamie Houlihan flashed the ball to James Maher at outhalf he fed it on to the onrushing Paddy McGrath who broke the defensive line he passes out to Eoghan O’Dwyer who drew the defence and offloaded to his centre partner Sonny Dwyer who ran in to score Thurles second try within 5 minutes. The conversion was again missed.

Thurles were well on top with the Second rows of Colin Nolan and Captain Luke Kelly awesome in all areas of the field and were well on top in the scrums. On the half-hour mark St Mary’s with on the back foot they were forced to give away a penalty and at last Paddy found his kicking form and kicked the penalty from a difficult angle to leave the score 13:0

At this stage St Marys coaching team had enough of seeing their pack getting pushed around replaced the whole front row while not very mobile were very large and strong this changed the temper of the game and St Marys started to get on top in the scrums and forced penalties that got them within 5 meters of the Thurles line.

Cometh the Hour Cometh the man Thurles replaced young John Shaw who had been doing well early with Dan Lee and while Thurles had flanker Rob O'Donovan binned for the next infringement Dan sorted out the scrumming and the ball was turned over and Thurles cleared their lines , this deflated St Marys and left the score 13:0 at half time. From the first play in the second half St Marys ran the ball and Eoghan O Dwyer was binned for a late tackle to reduce Thurles to 13 players, the resultant penalty was converted by Paul Laughlin and St Marys closed the gap with another penalty from Paul before Thurles were back up to full strength. Dylan O Shaughnessy who had played well on the wing was replaced with Cathal Hayes who was instructed to run everything he obliged and with Paddy and Owen Byrne produced some sparkling rugby. Seamie Houlihan was very efficient at keeping the ball moving and James Maher at out half was outstanding with his distributing and kicking for position. The two centres of Eoghan O’Dwyer and Sonny Dwyer who has only just got used to the position were rock solid in defence and were a lot of the reason that St Marys were kept try less. The back row of Mark Cummins who small in stature was awesome in all areas of his position his lineout catching ability and his ferocity in the tackle it’s easy to see why he is from Ireland's Fittest Family, Rob O'Donovan added huge muscle to the 6 position and did untold damage until replaced by Conor Moloney in half way through the second half. No 8 was young Sam Quinlan who was imperious despite his youth he played like a seasoned veteran picking from the scrum and tackling like a man possessed, Sam showed all the characteristics required of a young man with a very bright rugby future ahead of him, his cousin (Man of the Match) Paddy McGrath put the game beyond doubt with two try's in the last 6 minutes one from a pop from a ruck and the last one from the sweetest line that a back could take as he danced his way through the defence to score an outrageous try which he converted to leave the final score 25:6 to Thurles. The ref Con O’Regan who did well all game added quite a bit of extra time but there was no doubt over result, All of the Subs got game time and most of them showed the coach Eoin O'Connor that they are very much still in the mix when it comes to team selection for the last three league fixtures.

Team: Paddy McGrath, Dylan Shaughnessy, Sonny Dwyer, Eoghan O’Dwyer, Owen Byrne James Maher, Semaus Houlihan, Ger McCormack, Shane Nugent, John Shaw Jnr, Colin Nolan, Luke Kelly C, Mark Cummins, Rob O Donovan, Sam Quinlan Subs: Daniel Lee, Cathal Hayes Conor Moloney, Jack Kavanagh, Matthew Kelly, Darragh Sweeney, Ciaran Ryan, Brian O’Connell, Darragh Sweeney, Donnacha Ryan.

Next Week Thurles will be away to Kanturk in the league.

Kind Regards

Tadgh Dwyer